This website is an extension of the book "Hemp for Victory: History and Qualities of the World's Most Useful Plant." [ISBN 0-9549939-0-X, London, Whitaker Publishing, 2006. Ordering information: info@whitakerpublishing.co.uk/www.whitakerpublishing.co.uk] On this site will be found excerpts from the book along with updates, posted in the aim of giving the hemp world the latest information on the growth of the hemp movement.

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Missouri Senate Bill 358

The debate in Kentucky goes on extra innings (see previous post) and has now overflowed into Missouri, where a democrat is leading the charge. Steven Wilson in St. Louis Today gives us some insight:

Jefferson City, MO—State Senator Jason Holsman, Democrat from Kansas City, has introduced another Industrial Hemp Bill, officially, Senate Bill 358 (http://www.senate.mo.gov/13info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=18713094). A similar bill had been attempted last year but it never materialized.
The success in Kentucky has made Hemp no longer taboo. The Bill would allow people to grow Hemp which had no prior record of drug related offense. The bill also defines Hemp in the parameters of the THC level, one of many psychoactive ingredients in the cannabis sativa L family that offer the smoker the euphoria or the “high”. The bill sets the level at 1% THC for all Hemp growers.
Steven Wilson of the Central Missouri Hemp Network had to this to say about Bill 358. “Although it seems like a victory, the main issue with American farmers, politicians, and Industrial Hemp has always been the same thing; logistics and supply chain. It won’t matter who grows the Hemp, if you don’t have the supply chain in place pre-existing to aid the grower from raw material into final product America will wind up looking like Canada did for the first few years they grew Hemp. From the farm to the cashier, if the logistical supply chain is not ready, the vote won’t matter at all.”
Wilson has been the strongest proponent for the Missouri Prison Farm method for the early phasing in of Industrial Hemp. His video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGqg8ZpV4ro&feature=plcp
illustrates the method through the use of local 4H programs and re-entry of the prison population in the market device through farming hemp, job training, and hemp production into final products like clothing and construction materials. The current bill offers none of these solutions.
Right now, no one knows the future of Bill 358, but one thing is certain, Industrial Hemp is getting more than its fifteen minutes. The real question is can the farmer and the Missouri voters get on board.
To find out more please contact Senator Jason Holsman at http://www.senate.mo.gov/13info/members/mem07.htm
To find out more please contact Steven Wilson at 573-416-0075 or through his blog at http://missourihempnetwork.blogspot.com.